Our Laundry Blog

Washing Clothes After a Turkey Fire

20th

Nov

2017

According to the National Fire Protection Association, nearly 1,800 cooking fires break out annually across the United States on Thanksgiving–making this the most popular day of the year for cooking-related fires.

While we certainly hope that this didn’t (and doesn’t ever) happen to you, if such an instance did occur, here’s hoping that you contained it before anyone could be injured or anything could be damaged.

However, in the event of a fire–even a small one that’s quickly contained–your clothes are likely to suffer from smoke odor and maybe even soot accumulation.

So if this happened to you recently, here are the proper steps to remove that smoky odor from your attire (assuming your clothes were worth saving in the first place):

Remove any soot first. If soot accumulated on any of your clothes, take the measures to remove it first. That’s because soot isn’t just a source of the smell, but it contains oils that can stain textiles. To remove soot, take a shop vacuum and suck up the soot. Just be sure to keep the vacuum hose above the soot particles you’re removing to avoid rubbing it into the fabric.

Don’t wash right away. Throwing smoky clothes in the washer can cause the odor to set in. Instead, you’re better off deodorizing with an ozone machine–or something similar–to eradicate the smell. For this step, you may be best contacting a professional restoration contractor to ensure it’s performed correctly.

Now wash. Now that you’ve removed any soot and deodorized your garments, you’re good to wash and dry as normal on the appropriate cycles for your attire.

So don’t toss out your smoke-damaged clothes, just take the proper steps to restore the clothing.